








■i ^Bsvw -if •* VVj.1 






■ '■> '"> >"_>"^fc' V ' ' '"■*— ^ ' '.V 






^ ^' : V3>>',^, 



>>3^ 






.^^s> : K 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J 



1AJV 



,=£3^ 



^ ';> 





5S ^> » , 


►_> 


->0 J 




> > > J ; . 




o > 


>_> 


3> > >; 


>„;*» ,-. 


o D- ■> > -5 


> 35 


> ~> - * 



! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



1 XD3* 



> >-> ft, 
?•* ->■ ■>. ? -J '» > 



> > *J 



>■?: J> J>X 















¥>,- 3r> 












>> > 



> » >> 5, 

> > a Joy ■> 

c» ■> Jt& 

i>'"->Jj© ... 

> >.Jo > ", - 
-f >J»> ■..>>■ 






;f> >,' J .> ?'■ 



■' ^ ^> v » i • ■■;" 

4 ^ ~> x» > ; r 

_ •* -* -> J*>.' j> :;----- 

r^k^ >->■&. .->> J > >• ■ -> ; 
: Vc^?^>.« .:> :^> -> -a 

J^-*. ;>;> —- v»S> 

^> : J>> J» ., : -vS ,,,-.> 















^ > 


> > ". 


> > 


J* > "•■ 


'J. 


<** ' > - 


'"•"■>•■ '* 




J :> > > 




5 J , ■ v 




> » ', 





3 >:t > 

- 2) .>^ > 






3»; ^> ? " i 












-? > '» "> ^ * > , 









Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/apologyfornewpriOOware 



fa**-**^*>r <>^^/^'~ / - 



/ 



M^ #<~* 



APOLOGY 



FO* 



SMW VMRWSBlkM 



XN 



EDUCATION. 






v. 




V 



BY JONATHAN WARE. 



We are disposed to ascribe so much power to these obstructions to intellectual originality, 

that we cannot help fancying, that if Franklin, had been bred in a college, he would 

have contented himself with expounding the metres of Pindar, or mixing argument 

with his port in the common room ; and that if Boston had abounded with men 

of letters, he would never have ventured to come forth from his printing- 

h»use, or have been driven back to it, at any rate, by the sneers of the 

critics, after the first publication of his essays in the Busy Sot/i/ 

Edinburgh Review, July, 1800. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN H. A. FROST. 
181 &. 



ri 



jy. 






DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

District Clerk's Office — to wit i 

BE it remembered, that on the third day of October, 1818, and in 
the forty-third year of the independence of the United States of 
America, JONATHAN WARE, Esq. of the said district has deposited 
in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, 
in the words following, to wit : " Apology for New Principles in educa- 
44 tion, by Jonathan Ware. We are disposed to ascribe so much power 
" to these obstructions to intellectual originality, that we cannot help 
" fancying, that if Franklin, had been bred in a college, he would have 
" contented himself with expounding the metres of Pindar, or mixing 
44 argument with his port in the common room ; and that if Boston had 
" abounded with men of letters, he would never have ventured to come 
41 forth from his printing-house, or have been driven back to it, at any 
" rate, by the sneers of the critics, after the first publication of his essays 
" in the Busy Body. — Edinburgh Review, July 1806." In conformity to 
the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An Act for the 
44 encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and 
u books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times 
a therein mentioned ;" and also An Act, entitled, " An Act supple- 
44 mentary to An Act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learn- 
44 ing by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors 
41 and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned ; 
44 and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving 
44 and etching historical and other prints." 

J. W. DAVIS, 
Clerk of the District of Massachusetts, 
A true Copy of Record, 

Attest— J. W. Davis, Clerk. 



PREFACE. 



The faculties of the human mind are developed in this 
order ; first, sensation, then memory and judgment, and 
lastly the heart or imagination. 

These faculties of mind are interwoven with each other." 
Now the analysis of any thing is easier performed by re- 
versing the order of nature, or putting the last, first. 

The present essay, as the first of four in a new theory 
of mind, therefore, is the analysis of the conscience or 
heart. This, which is a faculty more isolated from the 
other three, than either of them is from the rest, can 
be treated more independently. It will by its own analysis 
afford an introduction to the understanding of the other 
faculties. 

The simplest production of nature is at least of three 
dimensions, all created or produced at once. In describing 
these, man is confined to one at a time, a description there* 
fore, as a copy, always comes short of the original. 

In delineating the faculties of the human mind, and in 
entering on any one of them, there is a necessity of pre- 
supposing in the reader a large acquaintance with those, 
which in the description are postponed. A definitive judge- 
ment of that first entered upon, must be reserved till the 
whole subject has been considered. 

The other divisions of this subject, that is, judgment t 
memory, sensation, are reserved for separate works or num- 
bers, in the order here named. 



This Apology has been composed under a conviction, that 
the cause of education is prejudiced by theorists, whose 
intermeddling has retarded the much desired event of a 
general feeling of interest in the subject. It was deemed, 
therefore, unwarrantable to broach a novel system, till its 
principles had been tested by experiments, or to offer to 
pull down before materials for rebuilding were laid in.— 
The result or success with which they have been practically 
illustrated, at length, has encouraged the attempt to make 
an expose of those principles. In doing this it is to be not- 
ed, that the experimenter is no longer at home, but off his 
high ground, like a wayfaring man at a stand or having lost 
his way, expecting every moment to fall into the hands of 
robbers, and conscious of having exposed himself to be re- 
proached for want of prudence and moderation, doubting 
whether to proceed or to retreat : Overawed too by the 
dignity of authorities, as nearly every genius of the highest 
order, has laboured for manlciud on this subject, he has 
ventured to print only fifty copies, for no other design 
than to be the means of procuring further lights on the 
subject, by the animadversions and remarks of those, who 
shall give to it so much of their attention. 

This essay, intended as a prelude to a more finished 
composition, is a mere outline, or sketch of principles.— 
Are these principles both novel and questionable ? they 
are offered for severe scrutiny. Are they just and impor- 
tant ? the labour to elucidate, to strengthen, and expand 
them, will be its own reward. 

Boston, {Cornhill-square,) Oct. S, 1818. 



APOLOGY 



FOR NEW PRINCIPLES IN 



EDUCATION. 



THE frame of the human mind is a eontexture 
of powers or faculties, which are unfolded by con- 
verting the impressions of objects on the senses to 
signs or ideas. 

Those original impressions are so many pleas- 
ures and pains : on their being repeated, the mind 
transforms them to thoughts or signs. So these 
impressions, pleasures and pains, become instru- 
ments of developement of the mental faculties or 
powers. 

When those pleasures and pains have lost their 
original character, by being completely transform- 
ed to instruments of developement, they are again 
changed to pleasures and pains of a new kind, and 
of a more permanent nature. The pleasures of 
the imagination are in this way created, and are 
that greatest good, the best object of human en- 
deavours. 

That, which advances these transformations, or 
opens fresh sources of ideas, and by presenting 
new views or combinations, leads to a more com- 
plete developement of mental faculties, is to be reck- 
oned a new principle of education. 

These faculties of mind, are distinguished by 



6 

the objects with which they are united, or develop- 
ed : but they have been designated, or have deriv- 
ed their names from the parts of the human body, 
in which it was supposed the faculties respectively 
inhered. 

The heart, or conscience, is the faculty of per- 
ceiving the good or bad dispositions, affections, or 
spirit imbibed by others in common with one's self. 

The faculties of mind are progressive, the con- 
science is a second-sight. 

The conscience is a principle of approbation, 
or power of judging. It passes judgment on all 
things : those beings possessed of conscience, are 
objects alone of approbation : all other beings were 
made to be instruments, and are valuable only as 
they contribute to the developement, or exercise of 
conscience : that in themselves they are of no 
value : that pleasure felt by beings without con- 
science, is in truth not pleasure. This will be seen 
to be the more just, when it is considered, that all 
beings without conscience, have not the power to 
be thankful for existence, or any quality they pos- 
sess, and till they have this power, they can never 
have any motive to be thankful ; that is, they pos- 
sess nothing valuable, nothing good. Conscience, 
therefore, is the faculty of perceiving good and evil. 

Approbation, or the pleasure of perceiving a 
common spirit, or conscience, is necessarily, an act 
of the same spirit, and the principle of duty or ob- 
ligation. Might and wrong are social distinctions. 

The spirit of conscience, is a principle of appro- 
bation, founded on a perception of a mutual spirit 
in ourselves and others. This recognising a 
common spirit, creates a common interest, the 
bond of union, the criterion of right and wrong, to 
which the laws of social order are conformed, as 
the greatest good, the supreme law, the ground of 
duty or obligation. 



7 

The spirit of conscience is first excited in 
infants, by the attentions they receive from the 
mother or nurse, and is manifested in their expres- 
sions of gratitude, which shew their perceiving the 
design, or kind affections of others towards them. 
The kind affections of the mother, transfuse or 
awaken grateful affections in the child. 

It is the converting the impressions made by acts 
of the mother, to signs or ideas of the motives or 
affections by which those acts were produced, and 
identifying them with the feelings or principles 
of which the child thereupon becomes conscious, 
that is the birth of conscience. 

Conscience is recognising a kindred or fellow 
feeling — or perceiving our own spirit in others. It 
is thus seeing ourselves. This spirit is next trans- 
fused from father, sister, brother, as the circle of 
its activity spreads. Its vigor is in proportion to 
its exercise. 

Conscience, as well as every other faculty of the 
mind, is developed by transforming impressions to 
signs or ideas, that is, by converting the actions 
produced by conscience in others to signs or ideas 
of such conscience, or affections. By this birth 
of imagination, the mind finds itself in a world 
of new ideas. New pleasures, new pains, the 
springs of human actions, a faculty of discern- 
ing new objects, the sublime, the beautiful, the 
praiseworthy, quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid 
utile, quid non, constitute a new mind. 

The new or regenerated, and the natural mind, 
have corresponding modifications. In the natural, 
are appetites, desires, instinctive determinations, 
memory, animal spirits, selfishness; and in the new, 
affection, will, reason, recollection, imagination, 
benevolence, and others, which have no correlates, 
as gratitude, envy, contempt, modesty, mercy, right, 
wrong, life and death, &c. 



The new mind is distinguished by the resistance 
it makes to the first or natural mind, or mind with- 
out imagination. When the impulse of pleasures 
or pains on the latter, produce an action, this action 
is said to be necessary ; because, there is no check 
to desire or inclination. The actions of brutes are 
equally necessary as the motions of inanimate 
matter, and therefore neither wrong nor right. 

These actions of the natural mind, when the 
faculty of conscience is developed, are liable to be 
checked or resisted by the impulse of the new plea- 
sures and pains of the new mind. This conflict 
of the pleasures and pains of the one, with the 
pleasures and pains of the other mind, is decided 
by the determination of the will, that is, a choice 
is made, and an action, elicited. 

The birth of conscience, is the creation of choice 
or will. No beings but those having two minds, 
are capable of choosing, or have what is called the 
will, or can distinguish right and wrong. 

Those actions, elicited by the determination of 
the will, or choice between two conflicting impul- 
ses, or rival pleasures or pains, are styled free. 
In this case the action is elicited by the stronger 
pleasure or pain against the impulse of pleasures 
or pains that are weaker. 

When an action is elicited by an impulse of 
conscience, or right, in contrariety to an impulse, 
common to the natural mind, or wrong, this over- 
coming by conscience, is virtue, and the action is 
called virtuous. No being therefore, not having 
two minds, is strictly speaking virtuous, benevolent, 
or praiseworthy, or capable or conscious of acting 
freely, or right, or wrong. 

The interest or pleasure of the natural mind, 
is sacrificed, as often as the conscience prevails over 
the desire of natural mind, which occasions the 



9 

actions produced by such victory to be called dis- 
interested. Virtue, therefore, is disinterested, be- 
cause, there is always a sacrifice of interest or in- 
clination, that is, a feebler to a stronger interest, 
in the exercise of virtue. When there is no sac- 
rifice at all, the action, strictly speaking, cannot 
be called virtuous, benevolent, or praiseworthy. 

That delight, which is the object to be obtained 
by the sacrifice of sensual pleasures, is the reward 
of virtue. Virtue therefore, is an endurance of 
evil to purchase felicity. Evil, therefore, is neces- 
sary to happiness, a price, by which alone it is 
attainable. 

The design of evil is therefore to be an instru- 
ment to cleanse the heart, or develope the con- 
science. In the developement of the other facul- 
ties of mind, evil contributes nothing at all. It 
neither clears the head, nor assists the faculties of 
memory or sensation, but contrariwise. 

The perfection of the heart, or disinterested ness ? 
is measured by the suffering of evil, and that for 
others. Pain gives to love vigor and purity. 

The most exquisite enjoyment is produced by 
the victory over difficulties. Death, the king of 
terrors, can be conquered only by a conscience, 
like gold seven times purified. It is a triumph at- 
tended with the greatest felicity. 

As it is with the heart man believes in the true 
God, this belief is distinguishable from the percep- 
tion of power or order. The perception of power 
and order, leads to a persuasion of what is styled 
the nature of things, or nature, which is replete 
with order or design, and power, and good and evil : 
But all this alone is uninteresting, or would be 
evidence of at least two principles, and, therefore^ 
would never lead to a conclusion or persuasion, that 
there was one only parent or creator of the universe. 



10 

As soon as the idea is formed, that the design or 
final tendency, of evil, is to benefit those exercised 
thereby, there is a proof that the principle of all 
things is endowed or possessed of affections, in 
some degree identified with those of the sufferer, 
which are objects of approbation or esteem, and 
ground of a belief of the unity or personality of 
such principle. In discerning the evidence of the 
existence of one Supreme Being, we look on na- 
ture no longer as the source, but as the stream. 

The discovery of the design of evil, is what first 
leads to a knowledge of God. The heart is then 
interested in providence : and perceiving a mind 
governed by affection, it imbibes a belief in (rod. 
A perceiving evil without its design, hides the evi- 
dence of a parental attribute, which is essential to 
the creator. A perceiving this affection in God, is 
a persuasion of his essential attribute. Separate 
from this affection there is no proof of his existence. 
ITor the argument is conclusive, if there is a God,, 

he must delight in his own work. 

#■ # sfc • # * * * 

The improvement of the conscience, is the first 
aud last and sole end of education. The laws and 
institutions of society have no other legitimate pur- 
pose. Discipline cannot create, but can change the 
heart ; it can make the good, better, and bad, 
worse. 

The spirit of invention is an inferior principle, 
but attends always a pure conscience. They both 
were eminently displayed in the discovery of the 
arts of life. These arts were discovered in a period 
far preceding the inventions of the curious arts. — 
History, which is one of the latter, can tell there- 
fore nothing of the origin of the former : a proo^ 
that those exalted minds who invented the useful 
arts, set no value on what is merely curious. 



11 

In the primeval or patriarchal state, the affec- 
tions were exercised on fewer objects, and there- 
fore were stronger. This was a state of indepen- 
dence, where man was not a slave to public opinion, 
or to fears arising from a dependence on the ar- 
rangements of society. It was then that were dis- 
covered the arts of life, destined to be as lasting 
as the race of man. Their inventors must have 
had the greatest love of human kind. Their names 
were not handed down to us, which proves that 
they had no object but the improvement of the af- 
fections, that they had no thirst for a name. 

The inventions of the curious arts have prevent- 
ed the improvement and discovery of those which 
are useful. They cherish a criminal or selfish cu- 
riosity, and a love of falsehood. The mind is there- 
by pre-occupied by a thousand falsities, and these 
enemies of truth effectually bar the avenues of light. 

Since the era of history, the Greeks and Ro- 
mans have exhibited most excellent examples of 
affections. A review of these cannot fail to inspire 
or improve the best dispositions. 

The age of invention was that of want and of 
personal independence. The age of improvement 
is that of plenty and political liberty. The Greeks 
and Romans invented nothing, but they were the 
greatest improvers. In the art of war, there were 
improvements shewn with the greatest success at 
Marathon, at Salamis, and Platea. By these 
events the human mind received a sudden growth, 
and the happiest amelioration took place in sub- 
jects, which were supposed least susceptible of it. 

The value of the improvements, or at least the 
merit of those who effected them, will be enhanced 
by a review, first, of the difficulties opposed to them. 
These are wholesome considerations, or so many 
triumphs of a good conscience. 



By the inventions of the arts of first necessity 
when the wants of society were few, there was cre- 
ated a surplus, and in the disposal of it were dis- 
covered the arts of superfluity. By the use of these, 
the estimation of the former, was necessarily les- 
sened ; and, by creating a variety of conflicting in- 
terests, the primary and useful institutions were 
superseded or corrupted. The surplus created by 
the useful arts, was the apple of discord, that turn- 
ed from the pursuit of virtue to that of vice. 

In a state of things so injurious to the discipline 
of the heart, where dangerous collisions of inter- 
ests have impaired the affections, if one, embold- 
ened by a love of mankind, should attempt a better 
method for effecting a public good, he is sure to be 
as one of the forlorn hope. Does he offer experi- 
ments ! his judges appeal to arguments and author- 
ities. His proposals are received as so many in- 
sults on the good sense, (as it is styled,) of the 
community. Does he present facts to be examin- 
ed ! but they come to the examination, though un- 
der a pretence to investigate, really to cavil at, 
or condemn with half praise, and to report only 
such part as they dare to misrepresent. 

The greater the improvement, or more useful the 
invention, it necessarily affects those, (injuriously 
as they esteem it,) who rely for subsistence on the 
method to be superseded. Their enmity bottomed 
on interest will exert an influence sufficient to blind 
even those who are interested in a reformation. The 
attempt will find enemies in all those, who though 
convinced of its intrinsic excellence, from a knowl- 
edge of the feelings and principles of mankind, 
joined to their own morbid affection, are wilfully 
persuaded of the final rejection of the attempt. 

The more refinements there are in society the 
very institutions which were organized to en- 



13 

courage genius and improvement have invariably 
been their greatest obstacles. To appeal to a corps 
or body of this description, would be to appeal to 
passions for shame never avowed, nor indulged 
till under shelter of number — the screen of injus- 
tice and meanness. 

Whenever the affections are impaired, the judg- 
ment is perverted. They have been tried, but what 
have produced councils, sanhedrims, divans, con- 
claves, sorbonnes, royal societies, universities ? 
When did either of them promote a reformation or 
improvement ? Or was there ever one absurdity 
or corruption in learning, and all of them have not 
sanctioned it ? 

Associations, necessarily create new ties — 
esprit du corps — by which those of eharity or phi- 
lanthropy are injured : they are leagues against 
the general welfare, man's worst enemies, that per- 
secuting spirit, which has demoralized the world. 

Seduced at first by hopes, and since yielding to 
examples, the wise and good have been enrolled 
where a majority had no merit other than that of 
wealth and family. The history of them is a rec- 
ord of blunders, prejudices, and contrariety to the 
progress of knowledge. 

The Reviewers have this end only, that is, 
to judge all by a standard, or certain laws and 
feelings governing the best circles ; in other words, 
to extend and confirm what is already established, 
— ne jrtus ultra. Consequently they are the great- 
est foes to a spirit of enquiry or improvement. 
They place all wisdom in discrimination or choice, 
and the whole of education in the exercise of mem- 
ory or study of history. * * * * * 

Those, (next to those who discovered the arts 
of life,) whose labours have had the best effects, 
were reformers in society, who studied the human 



14 

heart, and distinguished the means of its improve- 
ment. 

The minds of men once turned to this object 
must have perceived immediately, those means are 
the manners, the laws, and religion. 

Ameliorations in these were ever derived from a 
want of confidence, — because what was produced, 
was less than what was promised. This distrust 
turned to a search of a system of manners, laws, 
and religion, the fruits of which were durable and 
valuable. 

Diffident alike of the systems which experience 
had proved fallacious, and of untried theories, the 
devices of generous minds, the founders or re- 
formers of the Grecian states began their under- 
taking by exploring other countries to profit by the 
wisdom of Egypt, Syria, Persia and India, Ev- 
ery where was presented to them evidence, that 
the arrangements of society depending on the mul- 
tiplicity and support of the arts, (which are curious 
rather than useful, which instead of being produc- 
tive themselves, spring from the surpluses of which 
they are consumers,) are inimical to the , t spirit of 
enquiry or invention, and still more to the growth 
of conscience, the only faculty of the human mind 
in itself valuable. Every where was the evidence 
redundant, that the dissolution of empires, and ev- 
ery stage of their decay, was to be traced to a de- 
reliction of the discipline of the heart or conscience ; 
whereby the ties of society were broken, or in oth- 
er words the affections ceased. 

It is in this way, that the curious arts accelerated 
the fall of empires. They created new wants, and 
divided labour to supply them. Man became de- 
pendent on man, or slaves to one another. Mutual 
jealousy supplanted mutual affection. 



15 

The surpluses produced by the arts of life, 
were causes of the refinements in society, as plenty 
is the cause of luxury. The scramble for these 
surpluses to gratify artificial appetites, or pleas- 
ures arising from the employment of those sur- 
pluses, produced the priests and tyrants to whose 
use they were appropriated. 

Those reviews of mighty empires, afforded les- 
sons on the causes of the blindness of the heart or 
loss of conscience. From perceiving the nature 
and course of the disease, they discerned the rem- 
edy, and that the element of the affections, espe- 
cially those which are patriotic, is freedom. 

Had those reviewers or reformers conceived an 
opinion, that the effects witnessed at home warrant- 
ed the inference, that a discriminating mind could 
perceive in their own system of manners, laws and 
religion, a standard, they could have had no mo- 
tive for looking beyond it, for better principles of 
education, a purer religion, or discoveries in the 
arts of life. Their farthest object had been per- 
sonal fame by excellence in the beaten track, and 
not a good to the community by opening uncultivat- 
ed ground. ******** 

Education consists more in dressing the ground, 
seeding it, keeping off, or fencing it against inju- 
ries, watering and stirring the earth, than in gath- 
ering mature fruits. Education looks to the germs 
of the affections, before they are distinguished by 
the imposing appellations of conjugal, parental, 
patriotic, and christian. These distinctions must 
be overlooked in searching only for the elements 
of them. In noticing the views of the Greeks and 
Romans, it is right to observe, their attention was 
almost exclusively to the improvement of patriotic 
affections. Religion consequently was more a 
public than a private concern. The Greeks, the 



16 

descendants of emigrants from various nations, had 
no hostility to the religious notions of their parent 
countries. The Romans to facilitate the conquest 
of the world naturalized of course the divinities of 
the countries subdued. 

Our indignation against idolatry, is against its 
priests for being enemies of a better religion. It 
is a fault of our nature. For of all men, the teach- 
ers of any system are the last to learn, or concede 
any thing to a new method. It is their point of 
honor, that having espoused a cause they are no 
longer at liberty to question it, consequently, they 
attack a spirit of enquiry as a common enemy. 

With such opposers the Grecian reformers were 
to contend. If their researches in foreign cli- 
mates afforded but few facilities or means of over- 
coming opposition, they gained a treasure of 
wisdom, in their abhorrence for luxury, tyranny 
and superstition, as the causes of the degradation 
and misery of the empires they had visited, with 
a conviction that their weakness was caused by 
demoralization or loss of affection for the general 
welfare. 

Those ancient empires had been reared by a sys- 
tem of manners, laws and religion originally excel- 
lent, but had lost this pristine excellence by a suc- 
cession of corruptions. Those reformers of Greece 
returned with a twofold impression, an utter con- 
tempt for all which obviously presented itself, but 
an admiration of the frame of society on which 
their then present corrupt manners, laws and reli- 
gion were originally reared or founded. Of these 
ancient reviewers, history can tell, not what 
they said, but what they did. They excited in the 
breasts of their countrymen a lofty spirit of inde- 
pendence, a hatred of tyranny, a contempt of lux- 
ury, an admiration of virtue and a love of liberty. 



17 

In regard to religion, they viewed those oi 
Egypt and Asia, as fables cunningly devised to 
serve ambitious and sinister interests ; but in their 
original mechanism, as a work of an exalted imagi- 
nation, and for its ingenuity and beauty deserving 
great consideration. Those fables were related 
to the admiring Greeks, as a subject curious and 
amusing. They did not treat it altogether serious- 
ly, but it received a mixed attention, partly serious 
and partly ludicrous. Festivals were got up in 
honor of Bacchus, Ceres, and other divinities, but 
wanting the solemnities of a serious faith, they be- 
came the sinks of debaucheries, and the most 
shameful excesses. 

Indignant at these gross abuses, Aeschylus 
conceived the design of a reformation, by applying 
the remedies first to the affections, rather than to 
the understanding or reason, and attempting to 
amend the ruling principle of the human mind, the 
heart. To convert the school of vice, the feast of 
Bacchus, to a school of virtue, he dressed up rep- 
resentations of those exploits, in which the suc- 
cesses or reverses of fortune had greatly excited the 
hopes of the Athenians at-the prospects of their 
country and posterity, or a most lively concern 
for them, mixed with the deepest astonishment at 
the ways of providence. 

With these exhibitions the citizens were electri- 
fied, and inspired with a public spirit, they erected 
for Aeschylus, a hero of .Marathon, the first theatre. 

The Athenians suspended their licentious rev- 
els, to listen to the recitals of Aeschylus, and to 
reiterate the applauses of heroic virtue, and lova 
of country, and the merit next to them, of genius. 

The fine arts, that had been the causes of the dis- 
solution of empires, were converted to handmaids of 
the republic, by which the noblest affections were, 
3 



18 

developed and displayed. Next to the virtues 
which make the defeuce of the republic, was hon- 
ored the genius which could pourtray them. In 
this service of the state were employed her orators, 
historians, statuaries, architects, painters, poets, 
and musicians. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euri- 
pides were the greatest favorites of the Athenians. 
Man is nothing but a creature of example. The 
demonstrations of philosophy, the convictions of the 
understanding, have only a precarious influence on 
the conduct of life. The spirit of conscience is a 
ruling principle, independent and over every oth- 
er ; and the means of its improvement must be ad- 
dressed directly to itself. 

A perception or revelation of a Divine spirit, is 
ever the most efficient means of cleansing the heart, 
or improving the affections. This persuasion is 
constantly infusing a portion of that spirit. When 
it is in vigorous exercise, the work of education is 
more than half done. The work of self-instruction 
is begun. 

This persuasion springs from a consciousness, 
that nature is supported by an active or living prin- 
ciple, who has mixed evil in his works, as a father 
his chastisements for his children, with the kindest 
intentions. 

The culture of the heart is a labour first imposed 
on the mother. She is to awaken in the deposit 
heaven has committed to her, those affections, the 
principle of which is the boon of its creator. 

Those to whom the charge succeeds, have the 
duty of keeping the sacred spirit in constant exer- 
cise ; and by fixing its attention on distant, on fu- 
ture, and on objects past, to draw it from the power 
of present impressions, which are so liable to blind 
and put asleep the conscience. They are to allure 
by example the tender mind to endure labour, and 



19 

by force of habit to transform its pains to pleas- 
ures : to inculcate a courage to surmount tempta- 
tions, and a belief that to fly them is the surest 
course to be made captive : and modestly to lift the 
veil to examine the grounds of received opinions. 

The arts of developing and maturing the affec- 
tions, which devolve on all who take a part in 
rearing the youthful mind, are some of a negative 
character, that is, it is not enough by example to 
transfuse this spirit into the tender mind ; but the 
enemy must be guarded and kept from instilling a 
bad temper. The mind must not be suffered for 
an hour to harbour an evil disposition. 

An exterior must be preserved, though not at 

first founded on genuine principles. An exterior 

is not merely negative, but is of positive advantage 

in assisting to excite at last a principle of virtue, 

or genuine affection. 

Habit or exterior does not of itself excite con- 
science, but prepares the mind to imbibe it. Heart 
alone begets heart, and once implanted in the breast 
by its greater lustre, hides the value of every other 
endowment. 

The Greeks and Romans were distinguished for 
no virtue so much as the love of country, and for 
that reason war was their employment most hon- 
orable or glorious. 

The improvement of the conjugal affection, con- 
sequently, was a minor subject of their attention. 
The sex were treated as minors and never as equals. 
Those heroes, assuming the defence of their coun- 
try, claimed for themselves, exclusively, the high- 
est authorities. As they alone were capable of 
sustaining the post of danger, they supposed a ne- 
cessity for holding the sex in a condition no better 
than favorite slaves. 

To pourtray the evils entailed on the human race 



m 

by a distinction so unjust, is a task to be shunned, 
as the picture would not be received but with ex- 
treme disgust. 

The reverse of it, as it cannot fail of being fa- 
vorably examined by both sections of the human 
family, is a pleasing attempt. 

Kugbnta. habitually rises at an early hour, at 
which she usually awakes. In her dishabille, her 
first attentions are to see, how her little ones do ; 
beginning with that which sleeps in her bosom, 
and then to those next in age. Having visited 
their several bed rooms and found them all in health 
and at rest, she returns to her own, and with her 
husband together revise their entries for the day 
preceding in their note books, and put to such a 
finishing hand — for this a few minutes is always 
sufficient. A servant having just laid on their ta- 
bles the Gazette and letters taken from the post of- 
fice — a few minutes are allowed to glance at the 
articles of general concern. — next the letters are 
examined ; and such are answered as can be done 
as well then as ever, — and notices of all are enter- 
ed in their diaries or notebooks. 

All having prepared for it — at signal of the 
breakfast bell, the family meet in the eating room. 

At the breakfast table, the several parts are act- 
ed with the greatest decorum. The deportment 
of the heads of the family, is a proof that the 
weight of influence or authority between them is 
perfectly reciprocal. They mutually avoid those 
subjects in which they have respective duties, 
which qualify each one to decide as over its pecu- 
liar province. Some thing of common interest 
and deserving common attention, is selected as top- 
ics of conversation. 

The children are encouraged by expressions of 
approbation of observations coming from them with 



modesty and discernment. These interviews are 
constantly improving the affections of all present, — 
but especially the conjugal ones. For as huge- 
mat and her partner, are incessantly occupied, sep- 
arated (unless longer than a day,) they rarely think 
of one another. When, therefore, together they 
are peculiarly the objects of mutual regards. They 
have from their first acquaintance, acted under the 
persuasion, that the understanding and conscience 
are the pillars of conjugal felicity, and that on an^r 
other ground, the marriage state is nothing but a 
yoke. 

As soon as breakfast is over, Eugenia enteri 
the kitchen and is busily superintending the busi- 
ness of her family till a few minutes before 10. 
While at this time in the kitchen, she arranges and 
directs all for the remainder of the day, and till 
after breakfast next morning. 

She is next receiving in her school room the 
morning salutations of her pupils. Here are united 
all the advantages, with none of the disadvantages, 
of both private and public education. 

Precisely at 10, all the learners from 4 to 20 
years of age, begin with a portion of the bible in the 
original Greek. One of the first 3, takes the pre- 
ceptress' chair, and the course of instruction pro- 
ceeds just as it Eugenia was herself in the chair, 
or absent. Kach pupil is called promiscuously to 
interpret in her place a small portion, or at least 
one verse, in as literal a manner as possible, that 
every word and syllable having meaning is turned 
into English, preserving, as uniform as the sense 
will permit, the same English word usually em- 
ployed for each word in Greek. 

The smallest, or any pupil newly entered the 
school, sits beside one of the most capable, who 
points to each word or syllable, (as they are inter- 



preted in the order of the words nearly.) The be- 
ginner in this way, after having learned first 
some of the letters, learns the rest of the alphabet, 
syllables, words, and their significations, all at 
one lesson. The last verse or two are parsed. 

The scriptures are considered as the most excel- 
lent part of the exercises for the improvement of 
the heart. She prefers reading them in the Greek, 
not merely as a means of acquiring that language, 
but as more likely to be understood. A greater 
degree of attention is elicited. A portion of the 
sense of any language, is conveyed by different 
tones and stresses of the voice, which cannot be 
discovered by those who know nothing more than 
is got by the eyes in reading. Those find only a 
part of the sense of the scriptures. She adopts the 
living Greek.* 

Just before It, another succeeds her in the pre- 
ceptress' seat, (Monday.) Those who too small, 
or are not expert enough in writing, sit as specta- 
tors, while the rest commence making Italian. A 
sentence exemplifying a rule in grammar, and gen- 
erally replete with instruction, is pronounced in 
English by her, acting as preceptress, when all 
begin at once by spelling the first word of the Ital- 
ian in the interpretation of the sentence. If cor- 
rectly rendered, the acting mistress repeats the 
Italian letters, and then all write at once after her, 
repeating once or twice the letters ; if not correct, 
she repeats the English, and then another trial is 
made to render it in Italian. In this way the or- 

* " Every one with an unprejudiced mind and a musical ear, would 
turn away from the scholar, to indulge in the delight of hearing the ora- 
tions of Demosthenes, the sweet modulations of Anacreon, or the sub- 
lime descriptions of the bard of Ilion, read by a Greek even of the pres- 
ent times. It is by associating this pronunciation with the happy 
rhythm of the ancient Greeks, that one can conceive how an orator 
could captivate an audience by merely reading his productions." 

PouaiTEVILI-E. 



thography, the pronunciation and grammar, with 
a fund of miscellaneous knowledge, is communi- 
cated to all, partially also to the little ones who 
listen and now and then attempt a word in Italian. 

A few minutes before 12, the preceptress' seat 
is taken by a fresh instructress. The little chil- 
dren, who did not write, begin to read a book in 
Spanish. It being an hour in which the attention 
begins to feel the symptoms of fatigue, Eugenia, 
selects for this hour such authors, as require the 
least labor of attention to understand them, and in 
which there is amusement mixed with descriptions 
of manners and places, as biography and geogra- 
phy. In order to keep up attention they are called 
on promiscuously, and each one has a portion to 
read. The little learner is assisted, as in Greek, 
by one sitting at its side, until capable of holding 
a book and looking after another reading. 

Eugenia, is rarely absent, but passes unobserv- 
ed by all, while she overlook* every one, but ad- 
dresses only the one acting her part, when she in- 
terposes her advice, or direction. 

On leaving the school room, she repairs first to 
the nursery, where she is delighted with playing a 
short hour with her two youngest, who fly to her 
arms on her entering, with endearing transport. 
She attends at this time to such messages as have 
been left — and then meets in the parlour such com- 
pany as daily or occasionally, acquaintances and 
strangers, are to dine with the family. 

Sit down at table, Eugenia or her husband, al- 
ternately say grace. This is but a mark of that 
perfect reciprocity, that is scrupulously observed 
between them. In doing this there always is ex- 
pressed a return of thankfulness to the divine Be- 
ing, as the fountain from whence are derived the 



inventions, which have procured bread and loaded 
the table with blessings. 

Eugenia, never loses an opportunity of inculcat- 
ing the sentiment, that in taking bread, the mind 
should rise to a contemplation of its cause, and that 
itself is a token or evidence of the affection, or be» 
nevolent design, (proved by its invention,) of the 
principle of all things. That it affords a fit occa* 
sion to invoke his Name, to keep alive a perception 
of his attributes, as the giver of felicity. But that 
on other occasions, or in the course of nature alone, 
his name is most honored by a guarded silence, 
which tends to put the inquisitive youth on the 
search for an object of such regard and veneration. 

It is not possible to give a sketch of the conduct 
of Eugenia, at dinuer, she nor her husband never 
start a subject of conversation ; and so intent on 
seeing the company served, and in replying to their 
enquiries, she appears all attention, especially to 
learn somewhat from her respected guests. 

At 4, precisely, the school begins in the after-, 
noon. The Spanish, that was only read in the 
forenoon, is now literally interpreted, or so much 
as will consume something more than half an hour. 

Another resuming the mistress* seat, all capable 
of writing proceed in Spanish in an exercise in a 
course of arithmetical instruction. This course is 
followed every day, and begins once a year with, 
the first or elementary rules : and in the following 
year is gone over in another language. 

The questions are taken from a text book, and 
by single sentences are proposed in English to be 
first turned into Spanish, and if a sum in figures, 
these are named by the acting mistress, and writ- 
ten all at once by the pupils, and when the answer 
is calcutated, it is announced, and, if correct, enter- 
ed in a book by each one. 



29 

Eugenia, does not -arrive till past five, and as 
soon as the course of arithmetic is gone through,, 
the pupils one and all open a page of English. 
Some portion of history is selected. In this lesson 
nothing is adverted to but the sense, that is, no at- 
tention is given to pronunciation. 

On this occasion, Eugenia is herself in the chair; 
nothing but practice can qualify for discharging 
this highest and most difficult part of a teacher. — 
The discerning of principles, or the use of facts, is 
the art of the historian, this art must be understood 
by one teaching history, or the work is miserably 
doue. 

The historical painter, or statuary, or poet, have 
need of this art. But as the mind is a more diffi- 
cult subject than the body, a teacher who has to 
mould and fashion the former, must know how to 
touch the fine and hidden springs of human actions. 
In teaching history, the pupil is to lay hold of prin- 
ciples, that vanish often as soon as discovered, 
these must not only be shewn, but repeated to be 
retained. 

In teaching any thing, the greatest skill of the 
teacher is in passing over facts and circumstances 
that necessarily attach themselves to others, and 
in dwelling on such as are links in the chain or 
connection of subjects or events. 

It is perceiving and embodying in expressions, 
what are principles, and what cannot be perceived 
by the mind but by signs, which are artificial or 
arbitrary, that constitutes the whole of each ©f the 
fine arts. The historian, whether in a picture, or 
a statue, or in a composition of words, is the more 
perfect, according as hisfproductions start or spring 
in the mind of the observer a train of ideas, or re- 
flections, that are not without interest. 

History only is valuable, when it improves the 

4 



5 



26 

affections or best dispositions of the heart. To 
effect this it must trace the good and evils of soci- 
ety to their respective sources. Brute-strength, 
what is there in it ? or, in courage without a mo- 
tive for another's good ? You must pourtray all 
in their true colours, one moiety of the human fam- 
ily injuriously even to itself usurping authority, 
and the other miserably degraded, and both thereby 
prevented of the enjoyments least liable to be in- 
terrupted, and highest in value. A principal end 
in education is to train youths to such sagacity and 
force of judgment as will enable them to resist ef- 
fectually the current of prejudices. 

Eugenia, looks with some confidence to such 
general improvements in the taste or sentiments 
and affections of mankind, as will harmonize the 
love of country with the love of man, and realize 
the long-looked-for era of universal and perpetual 
peace. 

The goddess of wisdom was anciently the god- 
dess of war, and till a system of education is de- 
vised or inspired, by which the heart is mended, 
the wisdom so essential in war will still be enti- 
tled to the highest place. 

It is in this lesson that, Eugenia, closes her in- 
struction of the day with wholly neglecting every 
notice of the propriety of speeeh, in attending 
wholly to the sense. But this is not enough, she 
cannot let her pupils be liable to get too high an 
opinion of their talents in the use of words. It is 
necessary to treat these with contempt, when set 
up as of any intrinsic value. Their only char- 
acter is that of tools. They are never to be even 
treated with so much respect, as to be made a bu- 
siness of being got by heart ; not even an hour is 
allowed to be spent in this way. There must be 
ever making some progress of the understanding, 



27 

which is carefully to be distinguished from the 
power of repeating words, or reciting compositions 
of them equivalent to one alone. This exercise of 
the natural memory, is a misuse of mental faculty, 
hurtful to the judgment or reason, to the inventive 
spirit and the heart. Eugenia, puts the drudgery 
of teaching the learning of words, on others. She 
considers them of great use, as without them, the 
understanding must remain a latent principle. The 
study of words at the age of manhood is to become 
a child again. 

Zumos— who graduated a year since, and is now 
a resident in town, was of the company at tea — he 
affected to be acquainted with the peculiar method 
of instruction of Eugenia, he descanted on the prom- 
inent points of it in order to show his own prefer- 
ence of the old school. He did not explicitly con- 
demn her method, but as if to shew a liberal spirit 
he conceded that she excelled in administration ; 
that the old school was badly administered. That 
with her skill of administering in the old system, 
she would do miracles. Eugenia, willing to turn 
the conversation, enquired if the science of mind 
was a principal object of attention at college. 

Zumos. It is to be sure, madam ; attention, we 
have discovered to be a distinct mental faculty ! 
Next to Greek and Latin, the science of mind is 
in high repute. An expert disputant is indebted 
to the philosophy of mind for all his armor. But 
there is hardly an alliance between the several de- 
partments or sciences. The mathematics, and 
natural philosophy too, are allowed to be most suc- 
cessfully pursued without metaphysics, and litera- 
ture. 

Eugenia. The application of mathematics to 
natural knowledge must ensure the growth of iutel- 



28 

lect, and afford an insight into the amazing system 
of the universe, which is a most pleasing study. 

Zumos. It is not induction that occupies our 
time at the university, but logic. The still small 
voice of induction is not suited to the career we. 
must run to gain the prize of distinctions at college ; 
these are the motives of our endeavors. Itisacute- 
ness in arguments, not in experiments, a skill in 
the use of words, that commands respect, that grat- 
ifies our ambition. The power of reasoning shakes 
the foundations of the universe itself, it brings to 
its feet all the realities that impose on the senses, 
and changes them in a word to names. 

Mrs. E. enquired as to the moral discipline at 
the universities. 

Zumos. Moral principles were ever inculcated 
in good families at the first dawn of reason, and 
as the plant was supposed to approach to harvest 
time, when youth leave home for public school, 
there was less cultivation required thereafter. 

Mrs. E. — If in the course of liberal education, 
the six or seven years spent at Grammar school 
and as many more at college, are a kind of reaping 
time of good principles, it is to be hoped, error, 
false religion, and infidelity will in good time van- 
ish from our country. 

Zumos. Our time at school and half the time 
in college is taken up in studying Greek and Latin, 
in order to reach, if possible, the height of genius 
in literature, attained by the ancients. Is it rea- 
sonable to expeet in reading heathen authors nine 
or ten years successively, we should not insensibly 
fall into their way of thinking ? 

Mrs. E. — It is of importance to form a just es- 
timate * * * 

Zumos. If you will give me leave to advise, 
madam, I will mention a policy to be ingrafted in 



89 

your system of education, I mean a spirit of rivalry 
among the pupils, whicb onee excited, you may 
turn to a facility of managing them. 

Mrs, E. Are university-distinctions always propi- 
tious to the affections ? 

Zumos. I will not say they have the happiest 
effect on the ingenuous mind, but by what 1 have 
s^eu, if you consult your own ease and conven- 
ience, you will find your account in such a policy. 
Without recourse to flattery, no incentive to emu- 
lation, nor government, could subsist in the univer- 
sity ? , . » 

Eugenia. The memory at college, is a chiet 

object of cultivation ? 

Zumos. But at last it is found necessary to use 
an art of forgetfulness. For most of what we learn 
the first eight or ten years, we remember to forget 
or disuse in order to avoid the reputation of pedants. 

Eugenia. Success in literature or composition 
depends on memory or genius. 

Zumos, Literature or composition makes the 
scholar, all our efforts are here concentrated : aud 
our maxim is : style or manner is more essential 
than the matter. 

Eugenia, Words are the mental philosopher's 
apparatus, 

Zumos. And the phenomena, too, " all the prin- 
ciples of our nature which are capable of any use- 
ful application, have forced themselves on general 
observation many years ago, and now receive little 
more than a technical nomenclature and description 
from the best efforts of philosophy."* 

Mrs. E. 1 believe there are a variety of motives 
in sending youths to college ? 

Zumos. I have heard my parents tell some of 
theirs. My father said he wished his son to know 
the young sprouts of the first families. My mother* 

* Edinburgh Review. 



30 

who thinks education to be a lottery, observed, and 
very justly, there are always there more than twen- 
ty such, and all not worth a button. 

At 8 in the Evening her school room becomes 
a theatre. Every (Monday) evening one of the 
tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides are 
recited by her old or former, with one or two of 
her present pupils in minor parts. This is an ex- 
ercise that is peculiarly charming to all who awfe 
inflamed by a passion for eloquence, admiration of 
the Greek language, and a love of virtue. Their 
acting repeatedly a part is the best method both to 
acquire and retain the language. 

Prometheus Chained, is one now performing. 
Eugenia did not arrive till the 6th scene. At her 
entrance, a respect always shown, a cessation or 
pause for a few minutes takes place. There is a 
copy of the play in the hands of each spectator. 
The interlude has just ended and the curtain is 
raised, and the young Mr. B. in the character of 
Prometheus. Mrs. B. in that of Io and the chorus 
is led by Mrs. A. These werejmpils some seven 
years ago. They far exceed iu powers of elo- 
quence any of the present pupils. Mr. B. has 
passed through the University and a law appren- 
ticeship since he was a pupil of Eugenia, but he 
looks still to her with increasing respect, he has 
just been admitted to the bar, and sustains a repu- 
tation for urbanity, integrity, and sound judgment 
inferior to none of his age of his profession. To 
night he proves that in oratory he is admirable. 

Mrs. D. lives a few miles out of town, her hus-. 
band is a man of fortune and brings her almost 
every day to visit some acquaintance in the city. 

He is himself a member of at this time. 

He has learnt he says all he knows of public speak- 
ing from seeing Mrs. I), on the boards at this school 
room. 



31 

Mis. A. was 7 years ago married to a respecta- 
ble mechanic. Mr. A. is a goldsmith in F. street, 
since his marriage his wife has roused him to a zeal 
after knowledge. He is in faith a methodist, a sort 
of people persuaded of the evil tendency of every 
thing that bears the name of play, and with whom 
a theatre is an abomination. He comes with Mrs. 
A. to the school room as often as she is to perform. 
He does not condemn or approve her conduct, but 
attends as he says to shew her a new motive of at- 
tending with him once a week an evening lecture at 
the method ist meeting. Mrs. A's. father is a poor 
presbyterian minister some 25 miles in the country, 
but his fondness for literature, has been the means 
of all his daughters having a taste for letters. Mrs. 
A. has several young children, and is every day 
more and more known and esteemed as an accom- 
plished mistress of a growing family. She spent 
only one year with Eugenia, who has more than 
once told that she has never had a pupil who excel- 
led Mrs. A. She has solicited her to enter on the 
same course of life, that is, teaching. Methodism 
for having put the sexes on a footing of equality, 
first drew a favorable view of Eugenia, she has a 
peculiar regard for Mr. A. and family. 

Eugenia is sittiug between Mrs. O. and Mrs. E. 
These are also objects of considerable attention now 
and then of the respectable strangers present. Mrs. 
G. is beautiful, of a targe size, dresses gay, and is 
in a conspicuous part of the hall. She was one of 
Eugenia's first ^ues,but is rarely on the boards, 
she seems to avoid what she excels in, as none 
commands an equal attention as often as she per- 
forms, but having been surfeited with praises for 
qualities she esteems as nothing, a fine voice, grace- 
ful mein, and enchanting beauty, and for shame of 
not being as remarkable for excellences of mind 7 
she shuns the boards. 



Mrs. E. is one of the classmates of Mrs. C. she 
is a lady of a plain countenance, but full of expres- 
sion. She rarely is seen at the evening perform- 
ances, was never one of the performers. She is a 
cjuakeress, but as often as she visits Eugenia she 
accompanies her to this place. She deserves the 
more to be mentioned, as she more than any one, 
has imbibed the principles and manners of Eugenia. 
She is attempting a school in all respects like Eu- 
genia's, the evening exercise excepted. Though 
she is small, she has a fine voice, and is a speaker 
in the Friends' Society of the first order. Here 
she is observed for her quaker bonnet and for set- 
ting beside Eugenia. Eugenia long since ac- 
knowledged to Mrs. E. her difficulties in reconcil- 
ing this part of her system of education, with her 
own conscience. It is a point on which her mind 
still vibrates. Mrs. E. on the other hand is very 
willing to allow the gift of eloquence is to be cher- 
ished and brought to all the perfection of which it 
is capable, and in witnessing the superior attain- 
ments of Eugenia's scholars over her own in this 
particular, she confesses her perplexity. 

These two are themselves remarkable for differ- 
ent principles evolving similar results. Mrs. E's. 
principles seem to oppose the means, of which her 
own example is the end accomplished, for she dis- 
plays herself a specimen of rare eloquence. 

Eugenia, on the contrary, is the soul that ani- 
mates a number to efforts of the sublimest elo- 
quence. While herself was never in a single in- 
stance an example of it. She speaks only when 
conversing with her husband or company or di- 
recting the course to be pursued in her family and 
school. 

Alfred, the youngest son of Eugenia, about eleven 
years old, made to-night his first debut in the part 



S3 

of Mercury. He had been prepared more than two 
years, but never acted except at rehearsals. Eu- 
genia was of opinion that the anticipation of ap- 
plause deferred, is more effectual in evolving the 
nascent powers of youth, than applause bestowed. 
He was at the drawing room this evening after 
the performances, where was a most respectable 
company. Alfred received unqualified commen- 
dation. 

Eugenia. Interest and vanity are our first mo- 
tives of action, 1 find no apology for them, unless 
the pleasure in the consciousness of having laid 
them aside, for nobler or better principles. 

Mrs. E. Virtue is an instrument in the acquisi- 
tion of the greatest good, or another word for labour, 
the price for which the gods, as the Greeks said, 
sold us happiness. 

Eugenia. Virtue is therefore, the greatest wis- 
dom, that self-denial preventive of the greatest dan- 
gers in the voyage of life, hasty friendships. Next 
to the happiness of an enlightened mind or con- 
science, the greatest good in life is a friend : so 
next to developing the imagination and judgment, 
in the course of education, is the direction of the 
heart in the choice of friends. 

Judge B. Education has not kept pace with the 
other concerns of life. There has been a con- 
stant progress in the increase of riches, or sur- 
pluses, the measures of public happiness. Hut in 
the productions of genius, what a falling off ! Phi- 
losophy has been soaring of late, let her descend 
to earth again ! It is of importance to make a just 
estimate between a sagacity in the art of rejection, 
and #"a proficiency in what is commonly called 
reasoning, or the faculty of stating arguments and 
drawing conclusions, which is no mark of an en- 
* Dugald Stewart. 
5 



31 

lightened or comprehensive mind, but rather the 
reverse." 

Eugenia. A frequent recurrence to works of the 
finest imagination has the happiest effect on the 
youthful mind. This kind of industry, exemplified 
in children, creates and fixes the habits of attention 
and method — a kind of dressing of the soil, — and so 
does not wholly terminate in itself: It draws out 
the faculties, whieh are now ready to be employed 
in that industry which is productive, and the real 
wealth of society. 

Mr. . If facilities in the art of education shall' 

succeed in laying earlier the foundations in the lib- 
eral arts or literature, 1 cannot see why the youth 
may not enter also at an earlier age on the sciences, 
and before the mind becomes unsusceptible of the 
spirit of invention, whence the greatest improve- 
ments may be anticipated. 

Judge B. I have been long wanting to see the 
time, when the learning of words, and the acquisi- 
tion of the graces of elocution, shall no longer de- 
lay the youth in the use of the inductive logic. As 
soon as the mind is strong, like this boy*s who has 
already mastered the elements of several languages, 
I see no reason why he cannot soon enter on expe- 
rimental philosophy. 

h.ugenia. Boys and girls of his age and attain- 
ments should proceed three years or more in read- 
ing in several modern and learned languages, his- 
tory, geography, travels, &c. and in learning the 
rudiments of the mathematics, in all this there is a 
great deal of induction, if taught in a Socratic 
method. 

Mr. . When comparing the results of the 

several methods of education, my mind has a lean- 
ing to the ancient method as more successful in 
rearing genius and talents. The ancients contrived 



35 

to build up the. character of man at the expense of 
what they called the immortal gods. By depict, 
ins; the envy of their gods of all that is most excel- 
lent in man, the picture of human virtue, was tar. 
nished with vanity. This contrivance was suc- 
cessful in producing the greatest minds, but it is 
one, we caunot innocently employ. 

Eugenia. New principles, or if you please, a 
different combination of principles, will turn the 
tables against the ancient method, even on the 
score of producing talent. Let the study of words 
exclusively, give place to a method of learning lan- 
guages by induction, or as we learn our mother 
tongue. The languages and the liberal arts will 
be acquired so early, that youth will enter on the 
serious concerns of life at the age they would other- 
wise euter college, that is about seventeen. Na- 
tural knowledge, political economy, and faith, and 
hope, and charity, affections produced and improv- 
ed by a knowledge of our Creator, are so many 
accessions to the ancient principles of action, and 
to the strength and beauty of our system of educa- 
tion The acceptance and complacence of Him, 
whose affections are the object of all praise, must 
be a more powerful excitement than that of the an- 
cients emulating or attempting to excite the envy of 

the gods. 

Judge B. Those who legislate on education, 
must keep in view the bearing of every law on the 
useful, especially, with some regard to the fine, 
arts. A knowledge of mathematics is essential to 
navigation, astronomy and mechanics, and natural 
knowledge to manufactures and agriculture. But 
we spend so long a time in literature, there is noth- 
ing left for science. 

Eugenia. It is vain and preposterous to attempt 
the fine and other arts and sciences as exclusive 



objects of education. There can be no success in 
them, unless made the field of display of the af- 
fections. The arts and sciences are the effects of 
sensation, memory and understanding, but the 
growth of these hath no influence to mend the 
heart. On the contrary, the heart or conscience, 
clears the head, and, consequently, improves the 
faculty of association, or recollection. It guards 
the health and strength of the human frame, or 
powers of sensation. The heart or imagination 
not only clears the judgment or cleanses it from 
biases, but it gives to that faculty another dignity, 
it is the imagination that elevates instinct to rea- 
son. The faculty of memory too, by imagination, 
is advanced to recollection, or power of recalling 
ideas. The imagination superadds an undefinable 
delicacy to sensitive perceptions. The eye sees 
not beauty, the ear hears not music, till after the 
imagination is developed. The imagination or 
conscience therefore gives to the other facculties 
their greatest growth or perfection, and receives 
nothing in return. Labour alone is the culture 
of the heart. 



APPENDIX. 



EVIDENCE of some of those, who have witnessed at ex- 
aminations the proficiency of learners instructed in the 
method, prescribed in the preceding Apology. 

Opinion of Mr. John Leverett and Col. Josiah Dunham. 

Mr. Jonathan Ware, having devoted, gratuitously. Jive 
days, to a class of young ladies and misses, in this village, of 
various ages, in teaching them to read and construe the 
French language ; and we having witnessed, with much pleas- 
ure, an exhibition of their improvement, it is but an act of 
justice to that gentleman to state, unsolicited by him, that it ex- 
ceeded any thing of the kind we have before witnessed ; and 
affords very conclusive evidence of the superiority of his mods 
of, communicating instruction. 

JOHN LEVERETT, 
J. DUNHAM. 

Windsor, Vermont, May 10, 1817. 

Opinion of the Hon. John Trumbull, L. L. D. 
At the request of Mr. Jonathan Ware, I have attended an 
examination of a class of about an hundred pupils, who had 
been only one week under his tuition. They consisted of 
children from seven to fourteen years of age, belonging to a 
common English school in this city. Their proficiency in so 
short a period was surprising and evinced to my satisfaction 
the peculiar excellence of his mode of instruction in the ru- 
diments of language and grammar. Instead of burdening 
the memory with a mass of rules, which children learn to re- 
peat by rote, before they have discernment to comprehend, 
or skill to apply them, he teaches the first principles of lan- 
guage in a manner perfectly simple, intelligible and suited 
to their understanding. His method of instructing them, as 
to the natural emphasis of words, the different stress of voice 
with which they should be pronounced, and the use of accents 
and pauses, must tend in a great degree to banish those un- 
natural tones and improper cadences in reading, which we 
usually acquire at school and are seldom able wholly to cor- 
rect afterwards. In respect to his general system of educa- 
tion, from what knowledge I could obtain in conversing with 
him on the subject, and from the opinions of so many gentle- 



38 

men of science, who have given it their approbation, I am 
persuaded, that it is calculated to facilitate the acquisition of 
language, is a valuable improvement on the usual mode of 
instruction, and deserves public patronage. 

JOHN TRUMBULL. 
Hartford, May 31, 1817. 
Having been present at the within mentioned examination 
which was had before a Committee of the Legislature, I con- 
cur in the foregoing recommendation. 

ENOCH PERKINS. 
Hartford, May 31, 1817. 

Opinion of David Hosack, M. D. F. R. S. London, $*c. 

At \he request of Mr. Jonathan Ware 1 attended an exam- 
ina r ion of two of his pupils, who had been instructed in the 
English language, upon the principles inculcated in an Essay 
upon ihe education of children by Henry Wotton. 

Judging from the progress that has been made by the pupils 
of Mr. Ware, in the short period of time they have been un- 
der his direction, I am convinced that this system of instruc- 
tion is both more conformable to what may be denominated 
the natural method of acquiring language, and is better cal- 
culated to abridge the labor of learning the principles of 
grammar, than that usually pursued in the schools. 

DAVID HOSACK. 

New -Fork, Dec. 9, 1815. 

We were also present at the examination of two of the pu- 
pils of Jonathan Ware, who had been instructed in his prin- 
ciples, and concur in the sentiments expressed by Dr. Hosack. 

THOMAS EDDY, 
W. SAWYER. 
12 mo. 11, 1815. 

I willingly give to Mr. Jonathan Ware this testimony of 
approbation, due to a gentleman who has been fortunate enough 
to make an improvement in the important art of communicat- 
ing the elements of instruction to young persons. From the 
examination, 1 witnessed, of two of his pupils, I am satisfied 
that his method rests upon a natural and solid basis, whereby 
the principles of grammar are distinctly acquired, and from 
which to read wellresults by a necessary consequence. 

WILLIAM JAMES MAC NEVEN. 

New-York, Dec. 10, 1815. 

Mr. Ware has explained to me his mode of instruction, and 
I have attended the examination of two of his pupils. In 
justice to Mr. Ware, 1 am bound to say that their improve- 



39 

uieut far exceeded my expectations, they having been under 
his tuition only fourteen days. I am induced to believe that 
a knowledge of the philosophy of grammar, and particularly 
a knowledge of the English language, may be obtained by his 
mode of instruction. His system is novel, experience, the test 
to which he appeals, must prove its utility. 

WM. HARRIS, 
President of Columbia College, 

Mr. Ware having explained to us his mode of instruction, 
we think, so far as we can judge merely from theory, that it 
may be used with advantage. We have heard that he has 
applied his principles to practice with success. 

1 P. WILSON, L.L.D. 

Prof of Gr. and Lat. $c. Col. Col. 
JOHN BOWDEN, I>. D. 
Prof, of Mural Science, #c. Col. Col. 
New-Fork, Jan. 3, 1816. 

I once attended the examination of the pupils of Mr. Jona- 
than Ware, which gave me peculiar pleasure : My ignorance 
of the French language left me only the gratification of hear- 
ing and admiring their proficiency in the Greek. From my 
observation of the method of teaching and the progress of the 
students, I am fully convinced that it is the most expeditious 
method of communicating a knowledge of that, (and I pre- 
sume the French or any other language,) that has heretofore 
been introduced. WILLIAM THACHER, 

Methodist Minister. 
New- Fork, Oct. 3d, 1816. 

At the request of Mr. Jonathan Ware, I attended the ex- 
amination this day of twelve of his young scholars who were 
examined in the Greek and French languages. It appeared 
to me that his mode of instruction was calculated to give un- 
usual facility and rapidity to the acquisition of the principles 
of grammar and language, and is well deserving of public 
patronage. JAMES KENT. 

New-Fork, October 11, 1816. 

I fully concur with Chancellor Kent in favor of the advan- 
tages of Mr. Ware's mode of tuition. 

WRIGHT POST, M. D. 

Nov. 1, 1816. 

Ayant ete invite par M. Jonathan Ware, d'examiner les 
progres de ses ecoliers dans les langues greeque, latine, et 
franchise et ayant recu de lui quelques informations sur la 
methode qu'il poursuit pour graver ces langues dans leur 



40 

esprit, je pense que ses success dans Part d'enseiguer doivent 
etre attribues noa seulement a ses soins et a son attention a 
remplir les devoirs qui lui sont coufies, mais aussi a la 
maniere particuliere qu'il employe pour enseigner. 

Signe E. C. GENET, 

Mewhre de lasociete royale des antiquaires de Londses et de 

la societe litteraire et philosophique de New- Fork, Sfc. 
New -York le 30 d'Octobre, 1816. 

I fully concur with the testimonial of Mr. Genet in favour 
of the advantages of Mr. Ware's method of tuition. 

J. G. BOGERT, 

Consul of Russia. 
8th Nov. 1816. 

At the request of Mr. Ware, I attended an examination of 
the pupils under his instruction in this city. They had 
studied the French language only six days. The class com- 
menced by reading the first chapter of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, their pronunciation was correct and must have been at 
once intelligible to any one understanding the language. 
The chapter entire was then construed with accuracy by one 
of the class, Theodore Sedgwick, jr. son of Theodore Sedg- 
wick, Esq. of this city, about the age of six years. This to- 
gether with the other specimens of rapid improvement, in- 
duce me to believe that Mr. Ware's mode of instruction is 
calculated to give unparalleled facility to the acquisition of 
the principles of language. 

GILBERT LIVINGSTON THOMPSON. 

Albany, April 14, 1817. 



.'• : i-&V3> < ;: ' 

-3»':>^.> . 

j.>-*i3fe>. ■'-. ■ 



c» .*>•■ >>> ... J, > 
• ' ■ > . » 5 > _, 

» 5>J>* . 3» > > > 



J > ?&3 



^> ■;> i 



■■■ : 






_> 3 >» '. Jf 

>•'."!>. S> , "3»-. 






> > 3 :^£> 



..2D» .iJ i>> 



>3» . 3> ; 






> » 


> 


i > 






2> 3 


/D 


J'~, 


, > "_. 


> > 


> j 




. ■> 


3 3 


;o 




■ J> 


?>> j> 


""3 


^>^ 






> 






i 3> 


3 


s» 




> > 


> 


^> • - 


... 


:> <v 


■} 


r> > 


l>:V 


> 


>J> 


"1> i 




> ?> 


\> " 


V> -J. 


a > i 




3 > 


52*- J 


) *•> 


• ■ i 


O '. 


5g> 


5) o 




-• ?> 


' 3S> 


:•>; 


so ■ 




i>v> 


•» >•■ 


> -j 


'.->-' 


- J»- 






> 5 


— 


:>3 


?33 


7> 


^-> 






» 5 "3 


> j 


:>» 


.» 1 . 


> ^> 


^^ 


>"> - 


: > j 


^ 


_» 


> ; 


JE» 


>J> J 


•>> 


5' . 1* 




•' > 


' 3> 


' 1>"1 






> O "3> •:> 






> 1 ■ fe 



33 



1 ^ ^ 



>jry > 



5i > >> > -> > >' 
- .:» > > > j "> ^ • 

;>!> -'3 J>">.»^ 
> . 3 > •"» > > » j 
"'TO ~> > ^ J > -> 

,>y> ■•-*' ■> ■ ■> > > ; 



E3» > 






»> » '•> ~> j j> .. 






> > > :» > jbj .■>;» > 



:j> X>x5"> _> J _> ?-' - 

1> i :■" 3£»"' > * ^>-> ■, » 

...» • m j> •> > -■> 

J* J. i Jg> j ,,J> j> • "tji y 2, 






./> ,»T>^ 

>■•■ . r>;>.;» - 

.. ->j >> "' "" ■ 
;-'-> ■■'-» > '■ 


















&>:5 > > ^■*3g'--. 



^ -^ ^. 


> ?.- > . "»*■ 


> ^> -T> 


>-.-» "o ■'"ag*-- 


rJ j ~5 > 


• .> , :.>~^m 


j» ,>> 


'.?■;..> t>':zz* 


> . > > • 


> - , -> ■» 


; ' . 5> " > 


~> >•■■> "3»» 


^ ^ > : 


■ :> jv>-3» 


-»•;-■>• :j» ■ • 


:J> '-._> TH» ' 


> 5 >.:., 


>>5'?> .3p»- ; 


>-^lJ>>> 


..>^>;:>^ 


...->-, J». 


5 ' J> JW W 












3> 
























> > > j- > >■ 

>> > » ■■> > Ol 



